Calm, collected and healthier than ever, #Eagles LB Jordan Hicks is in a happy place.

In just half a season as a rookie in 2015, Jordan Hicks played so well that the Eagles saw fit to part with their "Mufasa," spiritual leader DeMeco Ryans, when it was over.

In just one full season as the starting middle linebacker last season, Hicks played well enough to lead all NFL linebackers with five interceptions.

Now, in his first fully healthy offseason as an Eagle, nobody knows what's next for Hicks. But everyone senses something more than what he's shown in his first 24 games, which already have revealed quite a bit about his ability.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Hicks is the first NFL linebacker to record 11 or more takeaways in his first 24 career games since Jack Ham nearly 50 years ago. He also is one of only five LBs in NFL history with seven or more interceptions in their first two seasons.

At this rate, he might just prove to be the highest-value draft pick the Eagles ever made, considering they were able to get him in the third round in 2015.

Hicks is not concerned with that, however. All he wants to do is experience his first winning season with the Eagles.

To that end, he should be better than ever after not having to deal with the rehab he was undergoing at this time last year, following a torn pectoral muscle that ended his rookie season after just eight games.

"It's huge to get a full year of just really the playing time, first and foremost," he said in a news conference on Tuesday, the second day of the team's offseason program. "... And then going into the offseason and just being able to train, let your body heal from the season and then just pick up where you started and really build off of everything, not having to start off at square one and primarily focus on that rehab. I've had that more times than not.

"So it's really nice to just be able to go into this thing confident. It does build your confidence just knowing that you've had that healthy season and you've proved yourself in that area. ... It's been a good offseason. I am a little bit bigger."

All the better to deal with the pressure that he must face as the man in the middle with a Wide 9 alignment in front of him. In this system, the middle linebacker is never covered and almost always must read run first, since the front four are concerned only with penetrating the backfield the quickest way possible.

"In this defense, it's all taking on blocks and getting off of blocks to make a tackle," Hicks said. "The defensive line is going to be disruptive, but you're going to have to take on blocks to be able to get into the tackles, being able to punch and shed."

Good as he's been in the middle of this 4-3 and one of the inside spots in the 3-4 the Eagles played in his rookie year, Hicks is prepared to move outside should he be asked. Strong side, weak side ... doesn't matter. He's played them all.

Hicks was asked about that just in case Mychal Kendricks, who's been the object of trade rumors, is jettisoned, or the Eagles decide to draft Alabama middle linebacker Reuben Foster in the first round.

"I'm more than willing to do what's necessary for this team to be the best defense it can be and to help contribute to this team as much as I possibly can," he said.

Hicks has grown accustomed to scheme changes as the norm rather than the exception ever since he arrived at the University of Texas in 2010. So what he's looking at this season as the second straight in the same scheme is almost foreign to him.

"Being able to be in the same defense two years in a row will help a lot," he said, "and to really work on the intricacies of the defense and the little mishaps that we had ... it's definitely something to build off.

"... This time last year, it was all questions [for then-new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz]. You didn't know what to expect. ... You get a feel for the way he handles a game, the way he handles practice, his expectations going into certain situations. So that communication, the ability to kind of read each other's minds and understand where we want to be and where we want this defense to be, we can only go up."

Hicks would prefer to focus on the teammates who are still here rather than the four defensive starters who already are gone.

"We'll have a lot of guys who have played in this defense," he said, "and a lot of guys who can help those [new] guys out and really take a role of leadership and take them under their wings. We have confidence in the guys who will step foot on that defense, and they'll be tested."